A Kiwi peanut butter company plans to trial growing its own nuts in Northland.

Pic's Peanut Butter says it'll try bolstering import Australian nuts with three plantations in the north.

The $91,000 project is partially funded by the Ministry for Primary Industries through its Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures Fund.

Owner and CEO Pic Picot told Heather du Plessis-Allan that they used to get all their peanuts out of Australia, and then droughts reduced what they could get - and they had difficulties in getting peanuts from South America as well.

"When they are coming from the other side of the world, especially with the freight issues we're having with Covid, it's become really difficult to make sure we've got continued supply.

He says this the first year they've done proper field trials and the results have been fantastic so far. 

"It's all looking pretty damn fine." 

However, it will take three to four years to get a proper production line up and running. 

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